Author Archive: robyn

Friends of the Earth Adelaide > Articles by: robyn

Ask Jamie Oliver to be a Bee/GMO-Free Advocate Lunch Sat Oct 31st

August 18, 2015

March Against Monsanto Adelaide and Fair Food Adelaide presents

“Ask Jamie Oliver to be a Bee/GMO-Free Advocate Lunch”

12pm Saturday 31st October

Jamie’s Adelaide Restaurant

2 King William St Adelaide

Celebrating Fair Food Week – Lunch at Jamie Oliver’s restaurant to plan and sign a letter asking him to be an Advocate for Bees and a GMO-free world. We will tick off a list how much of our food depends upon bees to send to him. We will ask staff questions about GMOS and their menu, we have been told by Jamie’s HQ they don’t use GMOs but do they really know?

Menu here: http://www.jamieoliver.com/italian/australia/restaurants/adelaide/menu/

Facebook event page to RSVP – limited spaces

Contact robyn.wood@foe.org.au for more information

 

FoE, Food, Old_Notes

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FOE Australia tracks the Nuclear Royal Commission

August 18, 2015

In addition to our local Anti-Nuclear/Pro-Renewables campaign, you can keep an eye on Friends of the Earth Australia’s website for updates – thanks to our national Nuclear Campaigner Dr Jim Green.

http://www.foe.org.au/royal-commission

If you’d like to be on our local campaigner Nectaria Calan’spersonal nuclear email list please contact adelaide.office@foe.org.au

Climate, FoE, Mining, Nuclear, Old_Notes, Renewables, Sustainability, Weapons proliferation

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FoE Adelaide Annual Report 2014/15

August 13, 2015

Friends of the Earth Adelaide has two main collectives.  The Fair Food Adelaide collective works on food sovereignty issues including March Against Monsanto, and the Clean Futures Collective focuses on Mining and Energy; and is pro-renewables, anti-nuclear and anti-fracking.

Fair Food Adelaide

This financial year Fair Food Adelaide focussed on events for Fair Food Week held each October where we held two events – a bicycle community garden tour, and a forum on food poverty co-hosted with Foodbank SA. After a local food Long Table lunch and an end of year picnic, we’ve had a quieter 2015 as two of our main organisers have had to step down due to new jobs.  Our monthly Urban Orchard food swap is continuing, and instead of rallying on the anniversary of the first March Against Monsanto we wrote letters to SA’s Agriculture Minister to congratulate him on standing strong to continue SA’s GM moratorium and championing soil improvement rather than GMO crops.  We also lobbied the federal Agriculture Minister and Health Minister asking them to ban the weedkiller Roundup (glyphosate) in light of the recent announcement by the World Health Organisation that it probably causes cancer. We have received replies from Barnaby Joyce saying the approval status of glyphosate is under review.  We are also collecting signatures for a petition to Bunnings asking them to stop stocking the neonicotinoid pesticides that harm bees. We also work with the GM-Free Australia Alliance as one of its member groups. Member Kim Hill hosted workshop on The End of Agriculture at the Students of Sustainability conference in July.

We’ll continue to keep members up to date with information on our Facebook page, Facebook group, googlegroup and website.

See www.facebook.com/fairfoodadelaide and www.facebook.com/groups/MarchAgainstMonsantoAdelaide

Sign up for our fortnightly e-newsletter at the bottom left side of our home page www.adelaide.foe.org.au… Read more >>

Clean Futures, Climate, FoE, Mining, Nuclear, Old_Notes, Publications, Renewables, Reports, Sustainability, Weapons proliferation

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Energy Storage Opportunities for SA – Monday 17 August

August 13, 2015

People interested in renewable energy storage may like to attend this Alternative Technology Association event:

ATA Adelaide Branch Meeting – Energy Storage Opportunities for SA

When: Monday, August 17

Time: 7.30pm sharp

Where: Goodwood Community Centre (Banquet Hall), 32/34 Rosa St, Goodwood. Goodwood Community Centre is convenient to the tram, buses and train. Enter the car park via Florence St.

Cost: ATA members $2, non-members $5. Tea, coffee and biscuits provided.

Presenter: Dean Spaccavento of Reposit Power

South Australia enjoys a high penetration of solar energy but electricity consumers pay high electricity prices by world standards. We have a volatile energy market and energy companies pay very high spot prices to generators when demand is high. All of this makes solar, energy storage and intelligent control a more attractive prospect for SA than elsewhere.

Dean will speak about the GridCredits software that allows householders to trade on the energy market. Using parameters such as a home’s energy consumption habits, weather, grid demand and future energy prices, the software automatically decides whether it’s advantageous for a system to store the solar energy or sell to the grid, allowing the household to profit. GridCredits is integrated into Tesla’s Powerwall battery storage system.

Dean has considerable technical expertise in the Australian, North American and Asian-Pacific electrical supply industries.

Other events

Adelaide Cleantech Network will hold their Tonsley Tour and refreshments on August 26 at 4pm. Click herefor details and free registration. Presentations include new Siemens facility.

Adelaide Sustainable Building Network: Graeme Hopkins and Janelle Arbon will present on Connecting with Nature on August 26, 6.30-8.30pm at 87 Gibson St, Bowden. Details and registration:https://guestlistapp.com/events/338700

Q&A

ATA meetings put people with questions in touch with people who might have answers. The Q&A session is an open discussion about sustainability topics.

ATA Adelaide Branch meetings are open to ATA members and non-members.… Read more >>

Clean Futures, Renewables, Sustainability

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Media Release: Nuclear is the wrong direction for SA

August 13, 2015

MEDIA RELEASE     13 August 2015

Three leading environmental organisations – Conservation SA, the Australian Conservation Foundation and Friends of the Earth, Australia – have submitted a detailed joint submission to the Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commission which forensically details an extensive series of nuclear myths and false assumptions.

“South Australia’s future lies in renewable energy, not nuclear.  It’s cheaper, safer and quicker to roll out,” said Conservation SA Chief Executive Craig Wilkins.

“This week’s axing of hundreds of jobs from Olympic Dam should raise huge questions about growth potential in the nuclear industry. With renewables, we can be in charge of our own destiny, not dependent on decisions made in corporate boardrooms on the other side of the world,” he said.

“Much of the nuclear promotion in SA is premised on the idea of a global nuclear ‘renaissance’, said lead submission author Dr Jim Green. “In fact, the nuclear renaissance is stone cold dead.

There are fewer reactors now than there were a decade ago. Nuclear fuel cycle markets for enrichment, conversion and fuel fabrication are oversupplied. And as the continuing job losses at Olympic Dam demonstrate, the uranium market is extremely weak and will remain so for years,” he said.

As well as highlighting the contested and constrained status of the current nuclear sector the 248 page report makes a compelling case that the industry’s future will be no brighter.

“So-called Generation 3 reactors projects such as the French EPR and Westinghouse AP1000 are in trouble, with multi-year delays and multi-billion dollar cost blowouts,” said Dr Green. “So-called Generation 4 reactors are decades away and, as a recent report by the French government concludes, safety claims made by Generation 4 advocates do not stand up to scrutiny.”

Many environment, public health and Aboriginal groups have expressed concern that the Royal Commission is being used by the nuclear industry as a Trojan Horse in an attempt to open national and international radioactive waste dumps in SA.… Read more >>

Clean Futures, FoE, Media releases, Mining, Nuclear, Old_Notes, Reports, Weapons proliferation

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